The Search of the Silver Chalice
by iLive4CarpeDiem
Summary: Nico di Angelo, 22 years old now, starts having these strange dreams that seems like nightmare but is it really? Join Nico as he leads his first quest and enter the memories of the forgotten past.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! This is my first story and I hope you like it. Please Review because I want to hear your thoughts and any **

**tips you can give me.**

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**Chapter 1: The Deathly Dream**

The cold breeze swept though his soft, dark curls. The pale moonlight seeped through the spindly branches of the walked forward, his feet against his will. He fought against his feet until he had to surrender. At that moment, he had finally come to a stop.

Just beyond the edge of the forest where the trees stopped, he was amazed by what he saw. Now without pressure on his feet, he walked freely into the clearing.

What he saw was indeed the most majestic sight any eyes of a human could lay theirs on. At the edge of the clearing was a clear, white pool of the freshest water surrounded by unsullied grass, made pale by the light of the moon.

He lifted his sandal-clad foot and made his way to the tempting waters of the pool. As he approached it, he began to see his reflection that was unusual to his everyday attire. His curls were longer, resembling that of Paris and Hector from the movie_Troy _that Annabeth made him watch when he was at Camp. His dark eyes, like pools of ember, contrasted heavily with his pale, healthy skin. He was fully clad in Greek armor and strange black tattoos of languages and symbols adorned his wrists all the way to the top of his shoulders.

He bent down by the edge of the pool and swirled his hands inside the clear water. All of a sudden, he heard soft footsteps against the grass walking towards him. He quickly turned around and grasped the hilt of his obsidian sword, dark as the fears of midnight. What he saw surprised him and brought a handsome smirk to his lips.

Walking towards him was a woman beautiful to him in every way. She was small but not so much to be deemed as short. She stood about to the chest of his 6'4 frame. Her dark, luminous hair waved softly and stopped at the top of her hips. Her skin tone was pale, but not asmuch his, and glowed with happiness and life. Her pomegranate, full lips were curved into a gentle smile. Her retroussé shaped nose gave her the grace of a noble lady. The doe shaped eyes of hers were a stunning dark brown clad with thick, curled eyelashes. The white Grecian chiton strapped loosely on her shoulders and flowed like waves towards him.

"_Nicolas,"_ she breathed, so natural the words coming out of her mouth that he smiled back at her.

For a moment, he didn't think this unusual, he just flowed with it as if a memory from a past, a dream of the past. He smiled ever so gently and replied, "_Alithia, _as beautiful as always_."_

Her smile brightened even more and his heart performed a somersault. "I missed you and your compliments that alwaysmake me smile_,"_ she said.

"Well, I had to leave you, my angel. But I am back now and I will never leave you again, I swear to you_," _he heard himself promise.

At this, the woman named Alithia ran the rest of the distance into his waiting arms. How normal this felt, her enveloped by his arms. He closed his arms and savored the sweet smell of her hair and the warmth that was emanating from her small body. How he wanted to stay this way forever, but alas, this was not to be true. Fate had different plans.

An hour later, the bright moon saw the young couple holding hands, laying down on the sweet grass by the pool. The man stared lovingly at his lover's face while she traced the symbols on his heavily tattooed arms.

_"_Tell me the story of how you fought off the minotaur_," _she said.

He replied, "You know this story already, as well as I do."

"I want to hear you tell me it. It's much more interesting coming from you," she smartly replied back.

With a heavy sigh, but a smile on his full lips, he surrendered. "Alright, my angel, but you owe me a reward after this."

"Fine," she smiled.

"When I was seventeen…," he began.

Throughout the story, she stared at him lovingly wiht a smile. Making a permanaent memory of his face when he acted out scenes of his tale. Once he stopped, she sat up with a sad smile on her face.

Seeing this, the man named Nicolas sat up also and moved up close to hug her from the side. "Tell me what is plaguing your mind, my angel. It bothers me to see you in a state such as this," he said.

"Oh it is nothing," she replied after a moment of hesitation," I just have this feeling that this is just a dream and nothing is real and is going to end all soon. How silly of me to have such foolish worries," she laughed off unconvincingly.

"You do not fool me Alithia," he said, " You have nothing to worry about. I will always be here. It is not a dream. I'll prove it to you." With that, he turned her face towards his gently and pressed his lips to hers. What bliss he felt and he sighed when he ended it. He caressed her face and took in her beautiful face.

"Oh, how I long to stay this way forever," she whispered.

"We will," he assured, "I will go to ask your father's blessing for your hand tomorrow." Surprised she looked up at him and smiled that breathtaking smile of hers. She went to hug him but then all of a sudden, she was pulled away from him by an invisible force.

"Alithia!" he shouted. He went to run after her but he was knocked down on his back by a strong force. He got back up and ran but his love was nowhere in sight.

"Nicolas!" he heard her scream, "Help me!"

"Alithia! Where are you?" he shouted. But alas, there was no answer. He was about to run to her direction when he heard a chilling laughter behind him.

"Where do you think you are going?" it asked.

Nicolas turned around and what he saw made him lunge angrily at the fiend. When their two swords met, everything dissolved into a swirl and Nico woke up, breathless.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: A Strange Encouter and a Vist from Old Friends**

After half an hour of laying in his bed, breathing heavily, Nico di Angelo rubbed his hands over his face and finally pulled his black sheets off of him. He sat up and put his hands on his head.

_Why? Who's that girl? Who am I fighting? _He thought these words every morning for the past two months. Nico had these reacurring dreams for the last few months and it's frustrating him each night even more. Sighing, Nico rubbed his tense neck and got up.

"I need a cold shower," Nico said to himself. He reached for his towel and draped it over his shirtless shoulder and torso. Nico reached for the shower head and turned it all the way to deathly cold.

After showering for a whole hour, Nico stepped out of his penthouse in his dark jeans, blue t-shirt, and black leather jacket. He walked down the street and got his usual coffee at his usual café shop.

While walking, Nico thought about his dream. He thought about that beautiful, yet strange woman. He had a feeling he met this woman called Alithia before and judging by how heacted with her in the dream, they were pretty friendly with each other. And that strange voice,who was he fighting? He thought he was pretty angry at whoever threatened him and his lover.

While walking and getting lost in his thoughts, Nico felt a small body collide into his chest. Before the hooded person could crash onto the ground, Nico caught the person's arms.

"Hey! Watch where you're …." Nico started to say but then he caught the face of the stranger in hisarms. _It's her._ The girl that's been haunting his dreams for two straight months is right in front of him in tattered jeans, an oversized t-shirt, and a brown jacket. Not what Nico expected of the elegant woman of his dreams that held a noble air of beauty. Nevertheless, the angelic face was in front of him and those beautiful doe eyes peered up innocently at him.

"Ughh…." The same voice of the woman in his dreams entered his thoughts. "Sorry dude, I'll just watch where I'm going next time." She stepped out his embrace and Nico couldn't help but feel empty inside. The strange girl started walking away, but he shouted for her to wait.

"Wait, do I know you from somewhere? What's your name?" Nico heard himself ask.

She replied, "Look man, I don't know what you're talking about so I'm just gonna go."

He started walking briskly toward her, "But I do know you," he insisted.

With eyes wide, the girl turned around and started running and dodging screaming behind her, "If you don't stop chasing me, I'll scream rape!"

Nico groaned and started chasing after her. "Don't you dare!" he called out after her.

"RAPE!" the girl yelled.

"SHUT UP!" Nico yelled back. At this, Nico started to pick up his speed. He ignored all the strange looks he got, the only thing on his mind was finding out who was that girl and why she appeared in his dreams. As he thought this, the girl turned around a corner and when he followed, he realized they hid a dead end in an alleyway. "Look," Nico said, "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to know what's your name?"

"Fat chance buddy!" yelled the girl. Nico sighed and took a step forward and at this, the girl picked up the heavy piece of stick by the garbage cans and hit Nico on the side of his forehead.

"Ow!" Nico yelled, "What was that for!"

"For being a creep, you stalker!" she replied. Then she wacked him in the stomach with the stick, twice, and made a run for it. When she ran pass him, Nico went to reach for her hand but she was quick and kicked him where the sun doesn't shine, hard.

"DAMN IT!" Nico yelled and fell to his knees on the ground, clutching his manhood.

"And stay away from me!" she said and ran away.

"Stupid girl," Nico groaned out, "she could not be the girl, can she?"

After forty-five minutes of limping towards his penthouse which had to be in the highest buildings in Manhattan, New York, he finally made it in front of his door. However, he felt something was unusual. He took out his stygian dagger from inside his jacket, Nico cautiously opened his door and went in.

Once inside, Nico immediately heard a crunching noise and made to follow the noise when he heard his toilet flush. He instead went to follow the toilet noise and when he opened the door, he was furious."CONNOR STOLL," Nico roared, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING INMY BATHROOM!" Nico pointed his dagger to the demigod's throat, who was actually sittingon the toilet with his pants around his ankles.

"Nico, my man!" Connor smiled, "you don't have to shout, all of Manhattan will be able to hearyou now."

"I will say this one more time," Nico whispered dangerously, "What the Hades are you doing in my bathroom for!"

Connor blinked and said, "What do you do in the bathroom Nico? Silly goose!" Connor chortled and then made a pained face. "Can you go and close the door behind you? I had bad, spicy Thai food last night and I bet you don't want to be here when I unleash the kraken."

"You are disgusting Connor," Nico replied but did as he was told.

When he went inside his living room, Nico was surprised to see Percy munching on a twelve inch sandwich. "What in Tartarus are you doing in my apartment Percy!" Nico shouted once again.

"One," Percy said between his mouth full of sub, "this is not an apartment, this is a gigantic, man cave known as your 'penthouse,' two, we wanted to see you. We haven't seen you since youwere fifteen, cuz! We missed you man!"

"Shut the crap Percy," Nico snapped, "what does Camp Half-Blood and Jupiter want." Nico twirled his dagger dangerously in his hand and went to sit in his armchair. Once he sat, Percy put his sandwich on thecoffee table and started talking.

"Nico, I'm ashamed to come to you after not reaching out to you for the past seven years but we need you. Rachel fell into a fainting spell since last week and haven't woken up yet," Percy began, "She keeps muttering 'the Ghost King shall return' and hasn't said anything else and we know that the Ghost King is you. Now you see, we need you to come back to camp. This seems big because the Oracle is in a strange coma and that has never happened before. We need your help Nico." Percy hung his head down after his news.

Nico just leaned back in his armchair, closed his eyes, and continued to twirl his dagger in his left hand while his right tapped the arms of his chair. "I see," Nico finally said. He finally turned to the twenty-seven year old Percy and looked him over.

Percy changed over the past eight years. He's grown taller, even more muscular, but not as tall asNico. His hair is finally trimmed and his fine sea-green eyes were saddened. Seeing his older cousin distressed, Nico couldn't help but imagine a kicked puppy. After eight years from being away from his friends and family, he couldn't believe how much they have changed. Percy seems wiser, stronger now and Nico finally took in the wedding band on Percy's left hand. Nicosmiled gently at this.

Nico finally moved to Percy and took him by his arm to make the older man stand up. Nico put his hands on Percy's shoulder and smiled at him. Nico chuckled and said, "Do you know you talk too much Seaweed Brain? Must be the old age." Percy chuckled at this and pulled Nico intoone of their 'man hugs.'

"Awww," Connor said, "make room for me too." He moved to his two friends and hugged themtightly. They all laughed until Nico breathed in a sharp breath of pain and moved away from the hug. "What's the matter?" Connor asked while Percy helped a limping Nico onto the couch.

"Long story man," Nico replied, "Too complicated."

"We got time," Percy said.

"Alright," Nico said while he took of his leather jacket and lifted his shirt to reveal a largy, purple-blue bruise on his well-formed abs.

"Whoah," Connor said, "eight years and little Nico's got himself tattooed and manly. How many ladies have you brought here Nico, buddy?" Connor winked wofishly as he said this.

Nico laughed and said, "Take a guess Connor."

"My man!" Connor exclaimed and fist bumped Nico.

Percy chuckled at his seat in front of Nico but was grim. "But how did this happen Nico? Were you attacked by a monster?"

Nico clenched his jaw and rubbed his face with his right hand. "Long story," Nico began, "began with a dream…" and Nico told him what has been happening the past two months and today while his two old friends listened attentively.

At the end of his story, Nico's friends were surprised and glanced at each other occasionally throughout the story looking very serious.

"What?" Nico asked.

Percy looked at Connor and said, "Well, we think your dreams and the events today has to do with Rachel. It's all too strange. Now we need to get you back to Camp."

"You really think this is serious then?" Nico asked.

This time Connor talked, "Yeah, like Percy said it's all too strange and connected to dismiss."

Nico groaned and said, "Fine I'll come but fix me up will you?" Percy chuckled and Connor grinned.

"I can't believe a girl smaller than you gave you that ugly cut on your forehead, hit you with a stick on you stomach, twice if I may add, and kicked you in the balls." Connor listed.

Nico groaned and said, "If I see that brat again, I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind. I didn't want to hurt the girl, she was so small compared to me. Please don't mention this to anyone."

"No promises," Connor and Percy said while Percy cleaned Nico up.

Half an hour later, Nico was cleaned and clothed into new clothes. "So when do we leave?" he asked.

"Right when you're ready." Percy said.

"Yeah," Connor said, "We've got the Camp's van parked right in front."

"If you don't mind," Nico said, "I have my own ways of transportation."

"Shadow travel?" Percy guessed.

"No, my baby."

It turns out, Nico's baby was a beautiful, black motorcycle. Percy and Connor drooled. "Dude," Connor exclaimed, "you have to let me ride this!"

"Not a chance," Nico replied.

Percy chuckled and moved towards the van, "The perks of being a billionaire playboy," he whispered to himself. At this, Percy and Connor started driving towards Long Island in the van and Nico speeded behind them on his motorcycle.

Nico thought to himself _What is happening? I'm going back to the place where I vowed I was __never going to go again. _


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! Thanks for reading my story. It's my first story so I apologize for any mistakes that I made.**

**I do not own any of the Percy Jackson series. **

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**Chapter 3: Welcome Back**

Annabeth Jackson never felt more worried in her life than she did at that moment. She's been waiting two whole days for her husband and Connor to come back and Rachel is getting worse. She still hasn't woken up from her fainting spell a week ago and this is somehow connected with the Ghost King, Nico di Angelo.

Nico. The boy she haven't met since he was fifteen years old. Seven years have passed and he would be 22 years old now. No one knows why he left and never came back, including Percy and Hazel, the two closest people he had. Now he is sought to solve whatever mystery is bothering Rachel so much.

A tug on her jeans brought Annabeth out from the maze of her thoughts. "Mama, where's Daddy?" she looked down and saw the sea green eyes of her two year old daughter that resembled her father so greatly.

Annabeth knelt down and put one hand on Claire's shoulder and the other to stroke her hair. She answered, "Daddy is just going to bring an old friend of Mommy and Daddy back to Camp."

Claire tilted her head and asked, "Who?"

Annabeth stared into those innocent, big sea green eyes and said, "A boy, no, a man called Nico di Angelo. You'll call him Uncle Nico though."

"But I have lots of uncles." Claire inquired childishly.

Her mother chuckled and said, "Well, you'll just have one more uncle who'll love you lots like Mommy and Daddy do." Annabeth tickled her and earned a laughter of chimes emitting from Claire. She kissed her on the forehead, gathered her in her arms, and stood up to stare at the place where Percy would return.

The setting sun saw Annabeth and Claire sitting under Thalia's Tree up on the hill. Claire was on Annabeth's lap, playing with her mother's curls. All of a sudden, Annabeth heard the sound of a car engine coming towards the camp. She stood up, carrying Claire with her, and stared out excitedly to see her husband approaching.

"Daddy!" Claire squealed and ran down the hill, her blond curls bouncing behind her.

"Claire," Annabeth called out, "don't get to close to the van!" she was met with laughter and her daughter jumping up and down waiting on the grass for her father. Annabeth sighed and followed her daughter, but she had a fond smile playing on the eges of her lips.

When she reached the edge of the grass near Claire, the Camp's van came to a srop a yard away from them. Connor jumbed out of the van and ran towards Claire and swooped her up into his arms. "Baby Jackson! I missed you!" he shouted and gave her a wet, sloppery kiss on the cheek.

"Ew!" protested Claire but still hugged her uncle back. "Uncle Connie!"

Connor sighed and said, "I wish you'll stop calling me a girl name Claire. It hurts my manly feelings." This caused Claire to giggle.

"You don't have any manly feelings to hurt Stoll." Percy said.

Claire squealed once again and jumped from her uncle's arms to her father's outstretched ones. "Daddy!"

"Hey," Connor cried out, "I take offense to that!"

"Oh, shut it Connor," Annabeth laughed.

Putting an arm on her shoulder, Connor mumbled, "Missed you too Annabeth." And then walked he towards the van to get the luggage.

"Hey baby, I missed you!" said Percy and hugged Claire close.

Annabeth smiled and walked up to her husband and daughter. "Hey Seaweed Brain, missed me too?"

"Always Wise Girl." Percy said and gave her a kiss.

"Yuck!" yelped Claire and blocked her hands with her eyes childishly. They chuckled at her cute antics.

"Was the mission successful?" asked Annabeth.

"Yeah Daddy! I want to see my new uncle." exclaimed Claire who clapped her hands, looking around curiously.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" laughed Connor who brought their luggage and set it on the ground. "And yes, our mission was successful."

"So where's Nico?" Annabeth inquired.

Percy answered, "Oh, he was coming up right behind us the last time I checked."

"And when was the last time you checked?" Annabeth asked raising her eyebrow.

Percy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with one hand and the other holding Claire. "About an hour ago? Maybe?" Percy answered. Annabeth sighed but smiled nevertheless.

"Wait," Connor said, "I think I hear him coming." They all turned towards the sound of said engine and watched Nico speeding up the road towards them on his black motorcycle.

"Daddy, is that Uncle Nico?" asked Claire excitedly.

"I guess so," answered Percy.

They all watched as Nico came to a stop behind the van. He took of his gloves and then his helmet. Annabeth gasped at how grown up Nico looked. He was still pale but Nico now had a healthy glow to his skin. His soft, black curls swirled with the warm summer breeze and he was taller than Percy and Connor. He was one of the most handsome men she has ever laid eyes upon. But what made Annabeth gasp was his heavily tattooed arms after he took off his dark jacket. The dark inks were shaped into ancient Greek words and symbols, trailing all the way down to his wrists and his dark eyes were full of loneliness and anticipation.

"Hey Annabeth," Nico's deep, soothing voice said. And she rushed up to hug him. Nico laughed and returned the hug fondly.

Annabeth leaned back to look at him and scolded, "You idiot. You didn't even call us the past seven years. Do you know how worried all of us were?"

"I'm guessing a lot," chuckled Nico staring down at the woman who tried her best to replace that bond that he lost with Bianca. Annabeth wacked him on the arm and gave him another sisterly hug.

"Alright then," Percy said while Annabeth was squeezing the life out of Nico, "Let's get a move on before Annabeth kills Nico." At this, Connor and Nico laughed while Annabeth glared at Percy but still listened to him.

"Yeah, we should get to the Big House," Annabeth agreed then turned to Nico, "And Chiron wants to talk to you."

Nico raised his left brow but didn't ask anything. He started to help Connor to carry the bags but then a little giggle caught his attention. His ears located the noise and then his eyes followed it. Behind Percy, there was a little girl. She stared from behind her father and Nico caught her sea green eyes and smiled at her. She giggled and hid her face behind her father's leg.

Percy chuckled and said, "Claire, I thought you were so excited to meet your new uncle?" He was just met with more giggles.

"Come on," Percy nudged his daughter, "I bet Uncle Nico wants to meet you." He threw a wicked smile in Nico's direction.

"Percy, I'm not so good- Ouch!" Annabeth elbowed him in the stomach.

"Claire, say hello to Nico," Annabeth said. The little girl skipped from behind her father towards a shocked Nico.

"Hi," Claire said, "you're pretty and I'm two years old." She help up two fingers. Nico smiled but it faltered when he heard Connor laughing and Percy and Annabeth smiling.

"Hi Claire, nice to meet you but I'm not pretty," Nico said.

"Yes you are," Claire insisted.

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm-," Annabeth interrupted Nico and said, "Nico, stop fighting with my two year old." But she was laughing.

"Fine," Nico said.

Claire then tugged on Nico's jeans and said, "Come on, Uncle Nico, I'll show you my dagger Uncle Leo got me," and she pulled on him to follow her towards camp.

"Uncle?" "What dagger?" Both Nico and Annabeth asked at the same time. Then Percy and Annabeth rushed to follow them, leaving Connor alone with the luggage once again.

"I always get stuck with being the bell boy," Connor grumbled and then spotted two preteens and shouted, "Pay you guys a buck each to carry the luggage!"

"No," the taller one said, "5 each."

"What! There's only four!" Connor protested.

"Take it or leave it," the shorter one said.

"Fine," Connor grumbled and reached into his wallet while the two boys high fived one another. Then he moved to follow the rest of his friends, grumbling about being ripped off from prepubescent teens.


End file.
